Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Exodus 27, Ecclesiastes 3, and Proverbs 8, verses 1 through 21. This devotional is about Exodus 27. You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. Make a horn on each of its four corners so that the horns are of one piece and overlay it with bronze. Make all its utensils of bronze, its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans. Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh. Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar. Additionally, Make poles of acacia wood for the altar, and overlay them with bronze. The poles are to be inserted into the rings, so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried. Construct the altar with boards, so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain. You are also to make a courtyard for the tabernacle. On the south side of the courtyard make curtains of finely spun linen, a hundred cubits long on one side, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and silver hooks and bands on the posts. Likewise there are to be curtains on the north side a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts. The curtains on the west side of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide, with ten posts and ten bases. The east side of the courtyard toward the sunrise is to be 50 cubits wide. Make the curtains on one side 15 cubits long, with 3 posts and 3 bases, and the curtains on the other side 15 cubits long, with 3 posts and 3 bases. The gate of the courtyard shall be twenty cubits long, with a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It shall have four posts, and four bases. All the posts around the courtyard shall have silver bands, silver hooks, and bronze bases. The entire courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely spun linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases. All the utensils of the tabernacle, for every use, including all its tent pegs, and the tent pegs of the courtyard, shall be made of bronze. and you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come. This is God's word. From Exodus 25 through 30, God spelled out for his people how to create the tabernacle and all the things that belonged in it. Chapter 25 verses 31 through 40 described the lampstand that they were to build. Here in chapter 27 verses 20 and 21, the Lord told them how to make the oil that would be burned in that lamp. The lampstand itself had seven lamps. one in the center and six branches, three on each side. You can see chapter 25 verse 32 and verse 37 for that. Remember that. Seven lamps on one lampstand. This lampstand was placed outside the curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant Law. That's what verse 21a in the NIV says. That means it was in the holy place just outside the most holy place or what's sometimes called the holy of holies. God's command was that these seven lamps were to be burning at all times. That's what from evening until morning in verse 21c means. The only time these lamps would ever go out was if the people, and therefore the tabernacle, were moving to a new place. When the tabernacle was set up and in use in the new place, the lamps were supposed to burn night and day without stopping. The people of Israel had their own lamps, which they used in their homes at night. When it was time to sleep, the lamps God's people used at home were extinguished because they were not needed and might prevent them from sleeping. God never sleeps. So the ever-burning lamps were a testimony to God's wakeful watchfulness over his people. Because God is always awake and always on duty, his people could pray to him any time, night or day. Notice also that the oil for these lamps was to be brought by the people. Verse 20 says, command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. Again, that's verse 20 in the NIV. It was the duty of the non-priests to bring a constant fresh supply of this olive oil so that the lamps would never go out. Also note that the responsibility to provide oil for the lamps passed from one generation to another. The last sentence of verse 21, again in the NIV says, this is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come. So this is supposed to keep happening generation after generation, people bringing the olive oil to the tabernacle or later the temple. Finally, note that a particular kind of olive oil was needed to fuel these lamps. Verse 20a calls it clear oil of pressed olives. Commentators say that this kind of oil would burn with very little smoke. There was a purity to this kind of preparation that was fitting as a symbol of God and his presence. So what do we have here? Let's review. The priests were to make a lamp with seven spots on top where the fire would appear. This lamp stand was placed outside the curtain where the Most Holy Place was. It was the closest thing in the tabernacle to the Ark of the Covenant, besides the curtain, of course, that separated the Holy and Most Holy Place. The seven lamps were never supposed to go out because they symbolized God's presence and his attention night and day. The oil for the lamp was to be pure olive oil to burn without smoke, provided by the people, not by the priests. And it was supposed to be continually provided by the people for every generation. Now, what does any of this have to do with us Christians? At the very least, it serves as a visual reminder to us of God's constant presence. He is always awake, always alert, always watching over us and ready to hear our prayers. Also, the command for the people to provide the oil from one generation to another reminds us that all of us should be contributing to God's ministry. If we stop contributing to God's work, the light of his presence may go out in the world. But consider one more possible meaning and application of this passage. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 12, John saw seven golden lampstands. And in verse 20 of Revelation 1, he was told that the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Admittedly, the tabernacle or temple only had one lampstand with seven lamps emanating from it. So there are some differences between what's described in Revelation and what's described here. But because there were seven lamps on the lampstand in Exodus 27, God may have chosen these seven churches and used the symbol of the lamp to call up this image from the tabernacle and later the temple. In Revelation 2, God's message to the church at Ephesus was that unless they repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. That's Revelation 2, verse 5. That was a promise that the church would cease to exist. The light of the gospel would go out in Ephesus. And there would be no indication of God's vigilant presence there. And that happened. The church in Ephesus no longer exists because Ephesus no longer exists. The region where Ephesus was located is in modern-day Turkey. It's a Muslim-dominated nation. If the lamps in Revelation 1 and 2 are to remind us of Exodus 27, then the fact that the people were to supply the oil so that the lamp never went out, it might be significant. The light of God's truth and God's presence is only one generation away from being extinguished. Now, God's church will never fail, but the light of his presence goes out when churches fail in various parts of the world. Unless God's people continue to cultivate purity and to continue to contribute to God's work. The light can go out and God will remove that lamp. Note that the elders of the church are part of the people of the church. The elders and pastors are not priests because Jesus is the one and only priest. And what was it that the church in Ephesus needed to repent of? Lovelessness. Revelation 2, 4 and 5 says, Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at the first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. And again, that's Revelation chapter two, verses four and five from the NIV. When we stop loving God and stop loving each other, We are no longer supplying the gospel with the fuel for its light. When there is no love in God's church, the light goes out, and God removes the lamp completely. By God's grace, then, let us love him and each other, cultivate a heart for God, and serve him and his people in love. Without this love, the light of God's presence in our church will go out. Think about that today, and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. I hope you have a great day today.